Home buying platform, OneDome, buys broker CMME Mortgage

Technology firm, OneDome, has bought CMME Mortgage and Protection for an undisclosed sum.

Describing itself as the world’s first eHomebuying platform, OneDome closed the acquisition in a purchase from CMME Group, owned by private equity firm, Livingbridge. The deal is subject to receiving change in control approval from the FCA.

CMME Mortgage and Protection Limited is a well-established mortgage brokerage and financial services provider in the UK. It arranges around £800m worth of mortgages per year which represents roughly 0.35% of the entire mortgage market.

As part of the transaction, OneDome also acquired CMME Group’s wealth management unit, Contractor Wealth Management Limited - a business with £130m of assets under management.

CMME’s 65 strong team will join the OneDome Group as part of this transaction.

Even easier

OneDome launched its property listing website in late 2019 as an alternative to rightmove.co.uk and zoopla.co.uk. It has recently launched a revolutionary eHomeBuying platform that offers an e-commerce like ‘one stop shop’ digital home buying experience. Buyers can find a property, apply and get a mortgage and commission the entire conveyancing procedure online in one place.

Chief executive, Babek Ismayil said :”To make the process even easier for consumers, OneDome has created a simple product called HomeBuyer Service, an all-inclusive package that bundles everything one needs to purchase a property such as mortgage and conveyancing into one simple service for just £999.

“The platform and the service combined can cut the property purchase time by around 70% - down to 5-6 weeks from a national average of 16 weeks.”

This acquisition will allow OneDome to significantly increase its mortgage brokerage capability and service its website clients. OneDome has also partnered with several estate agents and housebuilders to provide their clients with property transaction management service via its eHomeBuying platform.

Property purchase

This is the second acquisition by OneDome. In 2019, to launch its property search website, OneDome acquired a popular consumer website - nethouseprices.com, the UK’s first website to make land registry transaction data easily accessible to UK consumers.

Ismayil added: ”The property market is one of the few areas which has experienced limited impact from technology. The homebuying journey isn’t fit for purpose and has had little breakthrough innovation since the launch of classifieds like Rightmove in the early 2000s.

“Our goal is to make homebuying a faster, simpler and more enjoyable experience for everyone. We believe that our eHomebuying platform will change how we buy properties in the same way that e-commerce platforms changed how we shop. This is our first acquisition of a mortgage brokerage, and we are in discussion with several other target firms. Our 5 year goal is to service 10% of all property purchase and sales in the UK. “